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or the wild scenery of his rocky glens, by the sound of the village bell at sunset, of the duty and of the necessity of prayer.

Our religion appears a cold and formal religion; it is not the religion of the heart, nor so bound up with our every day existence as I have seen religion elsewhere. If we regard the aspect of the congregation, in too many of our churches, you would think the major part of them went there more from habit than a feeling of duty; and never have I experienced those emotions in an English church, amid a congregation boxed up in wooden partitions fortified with locks and keys, that I have felt in a large Catholic cathedral on seeing two or three thousand people of all ranks kneeling side by side on the cold marble pavement,—the Italian brunette in her robe of silk and the Tuscan peasant in his wooden shoes, the noble and the plebeian side by side,-while the swelling tones of the organ reverberated the hymn of praise through the long aisles; or in the court of the Mussulman's mosque, under the shade of the green tree or by the side of the flowing stream, where all seem intent upon one occupation,-heedless alike of place or circumstance, that of prayer. I have seen the solitary Mussulman on board ship, amid the howling of the storm, drenched with rain and by the

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spray of the shattered billows, kneeling at his devotions at the accustomed hour of prayer, while English sailors have laughed and jeered at the conscientious discharge of his duty.

We experience in England few of those touching emotions which call the mind away from the busy occupations of life and dispose us to serious meditation. Religion appears with us to be quite a secondary consideration, and with how many of us is not a fear of ridicule more potent than a feeling of religious duty? We all profess to believe in a future state of existence, but how few short fleeting moments of our long day of twenty-four hours are spent in the recollection of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul.

There is another period of the twenty-four hours in these eastern climes well calculated to excite a novel and powerful emotion in the mind of the European stranger-when the night call to prayer is chaunted from the minaret at dead of night. At some mosques a muezzin is appointed to deliver two of these additional calls during the hours of darkness between sunset and sunrise; and more than once since I have been in the country of the Mussulman, whilst lying in bed heated and restless, with the lattice opened to admit a fuller stream of cool air, have I heard the

simple and solemn melody of the deep prolonged chaunt of "Prayer is better than sleep" pitched in a high key, stealing upon the silence of night, followed, perhaps, by the admonition, "There is no God but God, the living, the self-subsisting, who hath created the heavens and the earth, and ordained light and darkness. To him belongeth dominion he giveth life and causeth death: unto him is owing whatsoever happeneth by night or by day it is he who heareth and knoweth. Say, shall we take any other protector but God, who feedeth all and is not fed by any? This present life is no other than a play and a vain amusement, but the future mansion shall be for those who fear God. God delivereth us from grief of mind, from the darkness of the land and the terrors of the sea. When we call upon him humbly, he will direct us in the right way. How are the true believers happy, who humble themselves in prayer, and eschew all vain discourse. O thou wrapped up, arise to prayer and continue therein during the night; verily, rising by night is more efficacious for stedfast continuance in devotion; for in daytime thou hast long employment."

I first heard the night call to prayer from the minaret of the mosque of Boujah in Asia Minor, and I have heard it many a time since. The

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burthen of the call has been explained to me; it varies according to the good pleasure of the individual chaunting, as passages from the Koran are frequently introduced and chaunted out, admonitory of the duty of attending to the call.

VOL. II.

M

CHAPTER VI.

DAMASCUS.-HOUSE OF ASSAB PASHA.-HOUSE OF ALI AGA KAZINI KATIBI. — PLACE OF THE SEPARATION OF THE WATERS.-ARRIVAL OF THE BEDOUIN ARABS.-PRAYERS.DINNER. DAMASCUS SUGAR MERCHANT. -DEPARTURE FOR PALMYRA.-BEDOUIN ARABS.—THE ÆNEZE TRIBE.THE BEDOUIN SHEIKH.

"Mother-of-pearl, and porphyry, and marble
Vied with each other on this costly spot;

And singing-birds without were heard to warble;
And the stained glass which lighted this fair grot
Varied each ray; but all descriptions garble

The true effect, and so we had better not
Be too minute, an outline is the best,-
A lively reader's fancy does the rest."

DON JUAN.

OCT. 22nd.-Accompanied by Mr. Farren's principal dragoman, a most gaily dressed shewy young Syrian, who speaks English beautifully, we proceeded to pay a visit to Assab Pasha, one of the principal men in Damascus, for the purpose of inspecting his very handsome house. When we

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